London Classic Rd1: Carlsen wins, McShane escapes Aronian

12/3/2011 – At the start of this year's Classic it was Magnus Carlsen who chalked up a win with a superb attack against David Howell, while Luke McShane pulled off a perpetual when he appeared lost to Aronian. The guest of honour on this first day followed the action with intense interest and actually played two games against the resting Nigel Short. Wimbledon champion Boris Becker, who stole the show.

London Chess Classic 2011

The 2011 London Chess Classic is taking place in the Olympia
Conference Centre from Saturday, December 3rd until Monday, December 12th,
starting at 14:00h London time each day (final round 12:00h). Time controls
are classical forty moves in two hours, then twenty moves in one hour and thirty
minutes for the rest of the game. A win is counted as three points, a draw as
one, and a loss zero. Tiebreaks: 1) number of wins, 2) number of wins with black,
3) result of the individual game between the tied players. In the unlikely event
that there is still a tie then: 4) 2 x 15'+2" games, and if necessary 5)
Armageddon game: 6'+2" vs 5'+2" with draw odds for black. If there
is a tie involving more than two players then the Rapid games will be conducted
as a double round all play all. The total prize fund is €160,000 before
tax.

There are nine players, including the four top-ranked (and only 2800+ rated)
players in the world. The player rested during each round will provide commentary
on the games in progress.

Pictorial report from day one in London

Pictures by Frederic Friedel, John Saunders, Ray Morris-Hill

The first round of the Chess Classic saw a very special guest: the tennis star
Boris Becker, six-time Grand Slam singles champion, Olympic gold medalist, and
the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon, at the age
of 17. Becker is an enthusiastic chess player, as you shall see in the rest
of this report.

Before the start of the round: Becker chats with World Champion Vishy Anand...

... and then, after instructions from Magnus, executes the first move in
the Carlsen-
Howell game (Becker: "1.e4 – that's exactly what I would have played
myself!")

The Indian High Commissioner Rajesh N. Prasad officiates in the game Adams-Anand

Nigel Short, Lawrence Trent and Steven Gordon doing live commentary for
the audience
in London, and for viewers all over the world on the official web site and on
Playchess

Boris Becker follows the commentary of the trio, and then...

... is led to a show-down game against Nigel Short (Becker is
suffering a leg injury sustained during a tennis match)

Boris and Nigel – the game is recorded by TV cameras and a crowd of
press photographers

At the end of the round Tara turns up in Star Trek garb and, with
the obligatory tricorder in hand, is off to a fancy dress party

Schedule and results

Round
1: Saturday, December 3, 2011

Vladimir Kramnik

½ ½

Hikaru Nakamura

Levon Aronian

½ ½

Luke McShane

Magnus Carlsen

1-0

David Howell

Michael Adams

½ ½

Vishy Anand

Nigel Short (bye) – assisting
commentary

Round
2: Sunday, December 4, 2011

David Howell

Michael Adams

Luke McShane

Magnus Carlsen

Hikaru Nakamura

Levon Aronian

Nigel Short

Vladimir Kramnik

Vishy Anand (bye) – assisting
commentary

Round
3: Monsay, December 5, 2011

Levon Aronian

Nigel Short

Magnus Carlsen

Hikaru Nakamura

Michael Adams

Luke McShane

Vishy Anand

David Howell

Vladimir Kramnik (bye) –
assisting commentary

Round
4: Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Magnus Carlsen

Vladimir Kramnik

Michael Adams

Nigel Short

Vishy Anand

Hikaru Nakamura

David Howell

Luke McShane

Levon Aronian (bye) –
assisting commentary

Wednesday,
December 7, 2011Rest day

Round
5: Thursday, December 8, 2011

Hikaru Nakamura

David Howell

Nigel Short

Vishy Anand

Vladimir Kramnik

Michael Adams

Levon Aronian

Magnus Carlsen

Luke McShane (bye) – assisting
commentary

Round
6: Friday, December 9, 2011

Michael Adams

Levon Aronian

Vishy Anand

Vladimir Kramnik

David Howell

Nigel Short

Luke McShane

Hikaru Nakamura

Magnus Carlsen (bye) –
assisting commentary

Round
7: Saturday, December 10, 2011

Nigel Short

Luke McShane

Vladimir Kramnik

David Howell

Levon Aronian

Vishy Anand

Magnus Carlsen

Michael Adams

Hikaru Nakamura (bye) –
assisting commentary

Round
8: Sunday, December 11, 2011

Vishy Anand

Magnus Carlsen

David Howell

Levon Aronian

Luke McShane

Vladimir Kramnik

Hikaru Nakamura

Nigel Short

Michael Adams (bye) –
assisting commentary

Round
9: Monday, December 12, 2011

Luke McShane

Vishy Anand

Hikaru Nakamura

Michael Adams

Nigel Short

Magnus Carlsen

Vladimir Kramnik

Levon Aronian

David Howell (bye) – assisting
commentary

All games start at 2 p.m. or 14:00h British time = 15:00h CET, 17:00h Moscow,
7:30 p.m. Chennai, 22:00h Beijing, 01:00 a.m. Melbourne, 03:00 a.m. Auckland
(sorry Murray!), 6 a.m. San José, 9 a.m. New York. You can check your
location here.
Naturally the games will be covered live on the official web site (below) and
on Playchess. Stand by for further details on Saturday. The games of the final
round start two hours earlier.

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official
web site and on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get
immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz
13 program, which includes six months free premium membership to Playchess.

See also

12/21/2011 – The London Chess Classic brought the English capital close to its former glory – in the mid-19th century, when the first two world tournaments were held in the capital. Did the Classic eclipse the events played roughly 150 years ago? In his extensive Huffington Post column GM Lubomir Kavalek looks back at the action, the players, and specific moves that caught his eye.Discuss

12/18/2011 – Ten days at the London Chess Classic, every one filled with action and activities, with meetings and encounters with interesting people closely or less closely associated with chess. We produced two reports per round, but didn't come close to using all the material we collected. Here is the first of what is bound to be two or three retrospects, introducing you to well and lesser known personalities.Discuss

Discuss

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